


A lily by any name

by Atalto



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bastardisation of flower language, Don’t copy to another site, Flower Shop Owner Shiro, Flower shop owner Adam, Fluff, For Adam!!!, Galtea Spring Exchange, Lance has tattoos, M/M, Modern AU, Multi, Musical innuendos, Polyamory, Punk Bassist Lance, Romance, flower shop au, fun stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 19:41:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18723658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atalto/pseuds/Atalto
Summary: "Welcome to Grand Designs," he hears Adam say like clockwork, as he glances around for something to look busy doing, "feel free to look around, we're here to help."From the person in the corner, there's a hum of what Shiro assumes is acceptance; this guy is lingering by the fucking lilies, and if Shiro has to go over there one more time today, he's gonna' scream. He also doesn't seem like he's going to buy anything, and there's nothing more annoying than people that come in to bend some petals before leaving."Can I have some help please?"And that's when Shiro turns around.(Adam and Shiro gain an interesting repeat visitor at their flower shop. He leaves much more than an impression.)A gift for Adam, as part of the Galtea Spring Exchange!





	A lily by any name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SpicyRedPaladin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpicyRedPaladin/gifts).



> Hello all!!!
> 
> This is a gift for Adam, who asked for Shadamance in a flower shop/rock band fusion!   
> I hope this is okay for u bud!!!! Thank u so much!!!!  
> (And Sorry it's so late ;-;)
> 
> Enjoy!

"Has the order come in yet Takashi? We're running low on wrap paper - again."

Shiro shrugs, not looking up from where he's misting the lilies that have started to wilt in their water boxes.  
"I didn't see the van," he replies, thumbing a slightly browning petal, "and Keith isn't exactly subtle with his deliveries."

There's a chuckle from the other side of the shop, low and deep in that way that turns Shiro's legs to jelly, and he turns his head slightly to see Adam flicking lazily through the inventory book on the front desk. He's got dirt on his face again, a smudge of brown down his cheek where he's obviously attempted to wipe it away, and it's a look that Shiro can't help but grin at.

"Considering last time he was driving he nearly ruined the gladioli, I think that's an understatement," Adam muses, closing the cover of the inventory book as Shiro turns back to the lily display, "I don't think Thace is gonna' be letting him take the van on his own for a while."

His chuckle returns as Shiro finishes up on the lilies, stepping back from the display to check his work; some customers earlier on had mixed up the colours when trying to make a bouquet before giving up, and  _man_ was it satisfying to put it right-

"Having fun there?"

"You bet," Shiro replies with a grin, spinning on his foot to face Adam at the counter, "it's been annoying me since ten this morning."

Adam quirks an eyebrow, straightening his back and meandering around the counter over to where Shiro is standing. "I could tell," he says with a grin, leisurely wrapping an arm around Shiro's waist, "you've had one eye on it ever since they left the shop."

A sudden heat dusts his face, and Shiro looks away in mild embarrassment before Adam laughs. He doesn't  _mean_ to be a perfectionist, but there's something about the vibrant displays that sets his teeth on edge whenever a well-meaning customer puts a flower back in the wrong place.

It's not even his shop; it's Adam's mother's, who gave Adam the keys and ownership when she retired last year. But being a family friend had its perks, one of which involved a guaranteed weekend job, along with Adam pretty much begging Shiro to come and help the moment he was honourably discharged.

"You're thinking too loud," Adam says suddenly, making Shiro jump despite his voice being barely above a whisper, "Penny for your thoughts, Takashi?"

"Nothing," he repeats, leaning over to press a kiss to the underside of Adam's jaw, "don't worry."

It's been a slow day.

"If you're sure," Adam replies with a hum, kissing his forehead in response before his arms retract slowly; his fingers seem to sneak under Shiro's shirt, dragging pads across smooth skin, "I'll believe you."

In fact, it's getting late; between the lulling drag of Adam's fingers on the small of his back, and the dimming sunset that's flooding through the windows at the front of the shop, he's kind of tired. Hopefully there won't be any more customers, he thinks as Adam takes his hand and begins to drag him back towards the counter, and then they can close early for the first time in months.

"You look exhausted," Shiro says quietly, and he's not lying.

"That's what you get when you decide to open at eight on a Saturday," Adam replies with a hum, rolling his eyes at Shiro's huff, "at least we close in ten - wanna finally watch that vampire film tonight?"

"Which one?"

Adam sighs playfully, ruffling Shiro's hair before wandering back over to the till. "That one you've been pestering me about for the past week."

"Oh,  _that_ one-"

And that's when the doorbell dings.

Shiro spins on his heel immediately, hoping that they haven't been caught  _again_ by an unwitting customers, and Adam's hand leaves his side like lightning.

"Welcome to Grand Designs," he hears Adam say like clockwork, as he glances around for something to look busy doing, "feel free to look around, we're here to help."

From the person in the corner, there's a hum of what Shiro assumes is acceptance; this guy is lingering by the  _fucking lilies_ , and if Shiro has to go over there one more time today, he's gonna' scream. He also doesn't seem like he's going to buy anything, and there's nothing more annoying than people that come in to bend some petals before leaving.

"Can I have some help please?"

And that's when Shiro turns around.

He's greeted by quite possibly the opposite of what he expected.   
The man before him looks young, hardly the type they usually get in the old-fashioned flower shop, wearing so much black he's hard to distinguish from the shadows cast by the setting sun.

"Uh, hello?"

There's a click of snakebites against teeth as the man hums again, and Shiro's mouth is suddenly unbelievably dry.

"What's up?" Shiro replies lamely, and Adam snores behind him.

The man quirks a filled-in eyebrow, before running a hand through chestnut hair and turning back to the display. "I just need something to say thank you," he explains as Shiro stumbles to his side, "our tour manager grabbed us a decent gig next week and it'd be nice to put something in her room, ya know?"

"I get it," Shiro says with a nod, and a small smile grows on the man's face, "you wouldn't happen to know what kind of flowers she likes?"

The man frowns. "Don't you florist people know flower language or whatever?"

"I- Most bouquets aren't based on-"

"Don't take that," Adam pipes up behind him, and Shiro can't avoid the blush that taints his face, "he's had them memorised since he was twelve, don't let him feed you that shit."

There's immediately a sparkle in the man's eyes, and a grin playing on his lips. "Go on then Oreoman, tell me how to make the best, biggest bouquet I've ever seen."

The flush that was already present on Shiro's face is practically at maximum intensity, not helped by Adam's snickers and the genuine smile on the man's face.

"Well, peach roses are always a good start," he stutters, glancing over to the roses on the other side of the shop, "you could easily build something around that-"

Before Shiro could finish, the man was off to the roses like a shot, fingers glancing over velvet petals. "Could I have a bouquet of just these?"

"I mean, sure," Adam supplies, and there's the echoing slam of the shadow book on the desk, "but it'd cost a bit to have an extra-large bouquet of peach roses and decoration."

He's not wrong - those flowers are the some of the most expensive ones in the shop bar the exotics they keep in the greenhouse round the back, and to put together one of the size the man was asking for would easily take up most of their stock.

Despite this, the man just shrugs, an easy smile on his face as he plucks one flower out of the bucket. "Yeah, that's not gonna' be an issue," he replies, and his grin is suddenly dazzling as he looks between Shiro and Adam, "how long will it take to make?"

"A day or two?" Shiro suggests, and Adam nods in agreement, "it's not like we have to order anything in - when do you need it by?"

"Thursday night," the Man states, pulling a phone out of his top pocket and unlocking it with a quick smile, "but I'll come to pick it up that afternoon?"

Adam nods, flicking the diary open and audibly running through the dates. "Can I take a name?"

And that's when the man smirks, and turns to Shiro with a wink. "The name's Lance - Lance Serrano."

The look Adam gives him is priceless, full of knowing and the promise that he's gonna' tease Shiro about this for weeks.

"You wanna' pay now?" Adam inquires, and the Man - Lance - nods, slipping a credit card out the back of the phone case. The total is easily the highest they've racked up in one sale this week once Adam's factored in decoration, plant food, and wrappings, but Lance doesn't seem to mind, tapping in his pin code before returning his phone and card to his pocket.

"I'll see you two gentlemen on Thursday, then," Lance says with a grin, and Shiro glances over to see a lace-covered hand playfully over Adam's on the desk, "it'll be an honour."

He sends Shiro another wink, before giving Adam's hand a squeeze and waltzing out of the shop, leaving the entire place as quiet as it has been before.

Shiro turns, and he hopes he doesn't look as bewildered as he feels as he glances over at Adam.

"Did he just-"

"I'm not getting snakebites," Adam interrupts with a wry smile, "nor tattoos."

"That's not what I meant," Shiro argues as Adam slides around the desk and over to the front door, keys in hand, "don't get the wrong idea."

Adam hums, locking the front door with a click before flicking over the open sign in the window. "But you thought he was cute, right?"

And just like that, the cat was out of the bag, and Shiro is fairly sure he's never felt more embarrassed in his life.  
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to-"

"Don't apologise," Adam interrupts for the final time, moving to wrap his arms around Shiro's waist and pressing forehead to forehead, "I'm just glad we're on the same page about this guy."

* * *

 

Next Thursday was surprisingly uneventful.

They'd been planning on how to ask Lance for his number, but it hadn't quite worked out. The relaxed affair Shiro had been imagining was instead a flurry of Lance running in, retrieving the flowers from Adam whilst shouting a hello to Shiro over his shoulder, and almost instantly running back out to the sleek black car that was parked outside.

"Shit," Adam curses under his breath as Shiro retrieves the keys from behind the counter, "that didn't go as planned."

"You'll get your chance," Shiro hums, clapping Adam's shoulder as he passes behind him, and Adam huffs, earning a sudden jump from another customer in the store.

To be fair, he wasn't wrong.

Every day for the next week, Lance would arrive in a fluster, ask for help with a seemingly random bouquet idea, pays for it on the now familiar black card, and leaves. Every time, Adam forgets to ask him for a number outside of the company one that was given on the first day, and every time Shiro stutters and stumbles through a conversation with him.

"You should come and see my band," Lance mentions one day, collecting a bouquet consisting mostly of blue roses and lilies, "I could get you guys some tickets?"

"Oh yeah?" Adam replies confidently, and there's something about the exchange that sends an odd heat pooling in his stomach, "and what do you play?"

The smirk on Lance's face is almost audible. "The bass," he says easily, and Shiro turns his head slightly to see his own blush mirrored on Adam's face, "since we all know it's the sexiest instrument, right?"

Shiro watches Adam raise an eyebrow, before ringing up his total on the till. "Never been into rock music myself," he admits with a shrug, "what's so great about it?"

It's then that Lance turns slightly, catching eye contact with Shiro, and the combined look of Lance's smirk and Adam's waiting gaze turns his veins to molten lead.

"It means I'm good with my fingers," Lance states, never breaking eye contact with Shiro as he lays one hand over Adam's on the desk, before he  _finally_ turns back to Adam, "maybe I could teach you."

"I'm more of a jazz guy," he overhears Adam say, "does that make me good with my mouth?"

Not only does Shiro know for a fact that it's true, he also can't quite breathe properly anymore. It's only the beep of the card reader that tells him to release the breath he didn't realise he was holding, and it's a little bit embarrassing how worked up he's getting when he's supposed to be doing his job.

"What about your boyfriend?" Lance continues to inquire, slipping the card back into his pocket and drumming his now free hand on the table, "does he have any hidden skills?"

"He's musically illiterate," Adam says with a laugh, and Shiro turns to roll his eyes at the other man, "but he sure does like to listen."

The two were looking at them again, and Shiro was fairly sure his legs were going to give out on him.

"If you're gonna' talk about me, at least wait until I'm out of the room," he grumbles, and he hopes Adam can't see how much the conversation has gotten to him, "don't you know it's rude to talk about people like that?"

"Well I'm  _sorry_ , but you seemed to be enjoying it," Lance counters, but the smile never leaves his lips as he drums his fingers against the back of Adam's hand, "well, I should be off-"

"What, just to come back again tomorrow?"

There's a flash of something in Lance's eyes, sudden and quick, that Shiro can't quite describe. It's almost fear, anxiety even, but it's gone before he can name it.

"Maybe, maybe not," Lance replies with an easy shrug, taking his hand off Adam's to shove it in his jacket pocket, "you say that as if I'm not your favourite customer already."

Adam huffs a laugh. "You're practically a regular."

"See, it could be worse," Lance admits with a grin, "Keith's a regular at that pub on seventh, Hunk's a regular at the Thai next to our flat, but I'm a regular at the flower shop - cute, right?"

He flashes a wink, before waving and turning out the shop.

It's always quiet after Lance leaves, Shiro realises, like there's a hole in their shop now where they expect Lance to be. He hasn't experienced this since he met Adam in high school, when he last felt that emptiness as Adam would leave the classroom with the barest of smiles across a desk.

(He still feels it sometimes, if Adam ever goes anywhere without him. It's stupid, and he feels childish and ridiculous, like a teenager madly in love again, so much in love with this man it  _hurts_. Sometimes when he leaves a room it darkens a bit.

That's what nearly losing himself in war does, he guesses.)

"Well, he sure knows how to imprint on a room," Adam admits, a low whistle singing through his teeth, "odds on we see him tomorrow."

"Yeah," Shiro replies, "wanna' bet?"

* * *

 

Turns out they were right.

It's half past six in the evening, and the rain is battering the windows like cannonballs. They had to bring the front in early, and it's clear from Adam's face that he's worried about his sunflowers that he'd painstakingly arranged this morning.

They're also closing in half an hour, and the time is passing almost unbearably slowly. Shiro had woken up in a terrible mood, and although Adam had definitely helped, the lingering darkness in his gut had festered throughout the day.

"Stop looking," Adam hums, taking Shiro's face in his hands as Shiro glances over at the clock for what feels like the millionth time, "it's not going to move any faster."

It takes a moment for Shiro to relax into his touch, before he feels a sigh rip from his lungs.  
"I know," he admits with a tired smile, "I'm fine, stop worrying about me."

"I'll stop worrying about you when I'm dead," Adam huffs, pressing a kiss to Shiro's cheek before pulling back and rolling his eyes. His fingers drag slowly across Shiro's cheeks, and Shiro can hardly stop his eyes fluttering shut from the touch.

"As much as I'd like you to stop, I'd prefer you to worry than to die," Shiro grumbles, and Adam gives an amused huff in reply. Adam never really laughs, just exhales slightly more heavily, and there's something soft about the whole scene that makes Shiro's heart melt.

"Pick your poison then, Takashi," Adam says with a grin, "that's what my mom always used to say-"

It's only then that the tinkle of the doorbell rings through the shop.

"Do you need me to come back later?"

Adam's hand is suddenly on his chest, and the force of it sends Shiro stumbling backwards across the shop for a decent second before he can quite calibrate.

"Lance," he hears Adam say, and the breathlessness from shock is evident in his voice, "give a guy some warning next time."

Lance just raises an eyebrow, knowing smirk already forming on his face. "Isn't that what the bell's for?" He hums, turning to the wall of hyacinths, "don't let me interrupt you."

There's a glint in Adam's eye as he meanders back to the desk, lighting the spark of excitement that seems to erupt in Shiro's gut. This is so,  _so_ far from planned, but Mama always hold him that sometimes the best things in life aren't.

 _Like Adam, he thinks, since that was the most unplanned thing to ever happen to him probably._   _Their first date was far from organised, along with pretty much everything since. It drives Adam nuts sometimes, his spontaneity, but it's a burden Shiro is willing to accept with a smile._

"It's fine," Shiro replies with a smooth smile, one that he's almost relived to see Lance return, "can we help you?"

Lance hums, turning back to the flowers and reaching out to drag a thumb and finger across delicate petals. He's had a new tattoo done, a sprawling, monochrome Galaxy only visible in the gap between his ear and the collar of his lace bolero, and the urge to reach out and run Shiro's thumb along it is almost impossible to control.

"I don't know," he muses, "I'm looking for two bouquets today - think you two are up to the challenge?"

Shiro feels himself nod, slightly more enthusiastically than he would've liked, but the hum that he hears from Adam behind him suggests that he's not the only one that's ready to jump at Lance's every beck and call.

Lance grins, taking that as all the invitation he needs. Despite that, he seems flustered today, jumpy at every creak of the shop; there's nerves in his eyes, and a tapping of one finger on another, and it worries Shiro.

"I'm gonna need one orange, one purple," he explains, looking over at the lilies on the wall, "also like, I need them today - money isn't-"

"Money isn't an issue, we know," Adam parrots, "why not the lilies? You can get those in both purple and orange-"

Lance nods sagely, ringed fingers lingering on Shiro's shoulder as he almost glides across the shop. Adam's right, and the near rainbow of lilies does include the various colours he's looking for.

"Yeah, that's perfect - sorry about the short notice," Lance hums, moving slightly to his left to let Shiro past, "they don't have to be big or anything, I just-"

"It's fine," Shiro interrupts, and he pauses his collecting to take in the grateful beam that Lance sends his way, "only the best for our favourite customer."

The flush on Lance's face is hard to ignore.

Thankfully, they don't take Adam very long to construct; he briefly heads out back to collect some posts for decoration, but other than that they're beautifully simple.

(Adam has that skill, to make any collection of flowers look like gifts for royalty; maybe it's the light, or how he seems to know more about proxemics than Shiro, but it's almost magic in a way that grabs Shiro's eye every time he makes one.)

As if by clockwork, Adam rings up the price, and Lance messes with the card reader until it rings to show the payment has processed. Adam's noticed his nerves too, and Shiro glances over to see a deeply concerned look on the other man's face.

"Thanks, I-" Lance whispers, and he takes a deep breath before starting again, "they look great."

He glances between Adam and Shiro before taking the two bouquets in hand and marching out of the shop.

And then he stops.

Adam frowns, and Shiro nods in understanding; Lance's car is  _always_ there, ready for him to climb into and speed away. Today, however, it's not, and Shiro's thankful he put the canopy up outside the shop that morning.

Then Lance rolls his shoulders, spins on his foot, and charges back inside.

"Lance-?"

He's over in a flash, pressing one bouquet into Shiro's hands whilst handing the other to Adam, eyes defiantly on the floor.

" _CanItakeyoutwoouttodinnerthankyou-_ "

"Hey, slow down," Shiro urges, fixing one hand to Lance's bicep as strikingly blue eyes lock with his own, "say that again, and try breathing this time."

There's a grumble from Lance, but he takes a shuddering breath anyway, rings clanking against the marble of the counter.

"Would you two," he starts again, steeling himself visibly, "like to go on a date with me?"

Shiro's suddenly thankful for the ceiling, 'cause he feels so light he could float off.

"The both of us?" Adam questions, but the smile on his face suggests there's absolutely no hint of him saying no. It's that small smile, the tender one that's usually reserved for only Shiro.

For once, he doesn't mind sharing it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you sm for reading!
> 
> Kudos and Comments are appreciared <3


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